Rabbi Seth Farber said the
unwillingness by both the Interior Ministry and Chief Rabbinate to trust Nina’s
three converting rabbis is a harbinger of worse things to come.

“It makes it clear that the
Rabbinate,” which the ministry consulted in this case, “plans to review almost
every Orthodox conversion ever performed in the U.S.” — should the convert wish
to live or be married in Israel.

American Orthodox rabbis
“ought to be up in arms over this latest development and formulating a strategy
for how to address this latest round of disenfranchisement,” Farber said.

The agencies’ refusals are
especially galling, Farber said, given that ITIM sued the Interior Ministry in
Israel’s High Court in 2011 and ultimately extracted a written commitment from
the ministry that it would not to consult the Rabbinate on issues relating to
aliyah except in “rare circumstances.”

This isn’t one of those
circumstances, Farber said.

“They committed to the
courts and to the Knesset that the Rabbinate wouldn’t be involved, and now
they’ve backed out of their agreement,” Farber noted.

I’m writing you today to beg
for more of your patience. I know you and your congregation, Birkat Shalom,
believed that winning an unprecedented verdict in May 2012 meant that you would
receive a state salary like all male Orthodox rabbis in the Gezer region.

Our
whole movement in Israel and abroad celebrated this achievement; however it is
now clear to me that the celebrations were premature.

We have just learned that
the state decided NOT to award you a salary for 2012 because you worked only
part time as Birkat Shalom’s rabbi. This is spectacular chutzpa.
The only reason you worked part time was that there were no financial
means to pay you for a full-time position.

But I know, as everyone does,
that you give much more than full-time; you give your all. The rule that
only full-time rabbis will be compensated by the state is an invention by
government bureaucrats wishing to circumvent the court’s verdict.

The High Court of Justice
demanded on Thursday that Rishon Lezion Chief Rabbi Yehuda David Wolpe explain
why he sends couples seeking to register for marriage to a private company for
clarifications about their Jewish ancestry.

ITIM, a religious rights
lobbying group, filed a petition with the court against Wolpe and the Am
Levadad company earlier this week. They have till March 10 to respond.

“It is unconscionable for a
municipal rabbi not to accept the authority of a rabbinical court,” said ITIM
director and Orthodox rabbi Seth Farber. “It’s an outrage that municipal and
state taxes go to pay his salary, and the State of Israel needs to have normal
marriage registration bureaus which are not controlled by renegade rabbis.

Rabbi David Stav: “What
Halacha dictates that a young couple seeking to get married must be treated
harshly?

What Halacha compels a
resident of Beersheva studying in Tel Aviv University to register with the
Rabbinate in Beersheva when Tel Aviv is infinitely more convenient for him/her?

What Halacha prohibits
accommodating the schedule of young people seeking to register for marriage?

What Halacha compels a
young couple to open their file exactly 90 days before the wedding instead of
six months if that better suits them?

Why can’t we assist the
immigrants from the Former Soviet Union? Yes, many of them must prove their
Jewish roots but instead of throwing a list of demands at them, why not use the
Chief Rabbinate’s vast resources and connections around the world to facilitate
that process? It would be in the interest of all”.

Rabbi Dov Halbertal: I am
speaking about the representatives of the different groups. Bennett has nothing
to do with being religious, just like Lapid. He is the same. We are not dealing
here with the individuals however, but the groups they represent.

The issue is the Chief
Rabbinate and religion and state. Rav Stav comes to ‘repair Yiddishkheit’ with
new ideas regarding giyur and what to do before marriage. He speaks about Rav
Ovadia and ‘those’ who do not permit Rav Ovadia to speak out. “Those sources”
was Maran Rav Elyashiv, the leading posek of the generation. Like I said, Rav
Stav seeks to change Halacha.

We hear the jingles
supporting Rabbi Stav’s candidacy. Why are there jingles for him and not Rav
Lau for example? Because Tzohar rabbis are liberal, modern and reform, and they
belong to the State of Tel Aviv, not here with us, in Yerushalayim.

“I definitely see an
opportunity for change, as the balance on issues of religion has changed,”said
Mickey Gitzin, a pro-pluralism activist who was deputy director of the election
campaign for the left-wing Meretz party. “Yair Lapid has taken away the
balancing position of Shas. This buys an opportunity.”

Anat Hoffman said that she
is “positive and optimistic” about the cause of civil marriage. And despite her
tense relationship with the Haredi community, she described the Yesh Atid’s
Haredi lawmaker, Dov Lipman, as “amazing” and “one very rare ultra-Orthodox
rabbi.”

When it comes to increasing
state funding for Reform and Conservative synagogues and religious movements …
Netanyahu’s Likud party, however, is expected to approve the money. “This is going
to be the easiest bone for Netanyahu to throw,” predicted Uri Regev, president
and CEO of Hiddush, an organization that pushes for pluralism.

According to Hiddush CEO
Rabbi Uri Regev, the fact that an overwhelming majority among Likud Beiteinu
voters supports a government that will advance freedom of religion and an equal
share of the burden shows that "the era in which haredi parties were
perceived as natural coalition partners is over."

Rachel Azaria: People want
ulpana [religious public girls’ high school] girls not to be out there. They
want them to be segregated and to stay within their own tribe, so to speak.
Someone who wants to cross boundaries and share and collaborate with another
tribe can be considered a threat. People get scared and punish this person to
try to bring things back to the way they were.

Ophir is crossing
boundaries and trying to be part of something larger, more pluralistic and
collaborative. Young people like her don’t want to live with these fences
anymore.

I understand the need for
modesty laws in religion and I appreciate any interpretation of any religion
that strives for modesty.

However, these modesty laws must be kept in check. In
Judaism we run the risk of taking these laws too far and then in an effort to
be modest, the misinterpretation of the laws cause immoral acts.

Banning a
female high school student from singing on a reality TV show is certainly an
example of this. Ben-Shetreet is a talented young girl with a beautiful voice.

Suspending her from school for two weeks in the name of her religion for doing
nothing wrong will have negative effects for her and countless other young
woman who want to embrace Judaism; not be shunned because of it.

The seemingly brave rabbis
in the Modern Orthodox community say the prohibition applies to sexualized singing
only. There are those who even say the law causes such emotional pain it
alienates women from religiosity altogether. All of these positions are made by
male rabbis and intended for male listeners. Where are women voices in this
conversation today?

If Naftali Bennett fails to
consult the rabbinic leadership before deciding his position on military
conscription for yeshiva students, the chairman of Habayit Hayehudi can say
goodbye to his political career, a senior rabbi in the religious-Zionist
community said Monday.

Rabbi Tzefania Drori, the
municipal rabbi of Kiryat Shmona, was speaking to Galei Israel, a regional
radio station that serves the West Bank settlements. Speaking on behalf of the
rabbis Drori said the leaders of Habayit Hayehudi "know full well that we
have to back them because without our support there’s no politics. That’s why
they have to listen. There’s no way any of them can make [their own]
agreements."

The Haredim waived the
benefits inherent in army service, but grew from a small minority to a major
social and political force with the help of government funding for yeshivas and
child allowances, while also joining the settlement project to benefit from
subsidized housing.

The State has two
interests: The first and most important interest is to increase the
ultra-Orthodox community's participation in the job market.

… The second interest is to
reduce inequality. This can be achieved only if the State significantly
shortens reserve duty for combat soldiers, which would necessitate the creation
of additional regular army combat units.

Enlisting all haredim just
for the "principle of the matter" may create expensive recruitment
tracks, and the benefit of these tracks would not outweigh their cost. This
would also do nothing to ease the real burden.

Shas spiritual leader Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef has urged President Shimon Peres to find a solution to the law
requiring yeshiva students to be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces,
warning it would cause a rift in the nation.

Comparing it to “the
unraveling of a ball of wool,” Efraim Halevy said the concept of sharing the
burden is profound and touches on many “interconnected” aspects of Israeli
society, like “the economy, the demand for gainful employment, the role of
women in society, rules of conduct in the public domain” and how to resolve the
Jewish status crisis for hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants who live
in Israel but are not Jewish according to halacha, or religious law.

He said “it is no longer
possible to put off” issues affecting so many citizens living in limbo in terms
of their Jewishness, and that Jerusalem, however reluctant to deal with these
delicate religious and political matters, must make “courageous decisions.”

It is not tolerable, he
said, for Russian-speaking IDF soldiers to be denied burial in military
cemeteries in Israel or for would-be converts to be prevented from joining the
Jewish people because of the increasingly stringent standards of the Chief
Rabbinate.

In my humble opinion --
and, I believe, in the opinion of gedolei Yisrael -- what we have here is no
less than an existential threat to the chareidi community in particular and the
State of Israel in general. This is predicated on the deeply-held belief,
rooted in the Torah, the Gemara, and the assurances of great Torah leaders of
all generations, that Torah study literally shields the Jewish People from
harm.

"Religious and traditional
Jews will be able to watch soccer games, go shopping, see shows and take part
in Israeli leisure culture," he said. "The fact that the religious
population, which is generally busy with housework [to prepare for Shabbat],
would be able to go shopping on Sunday is important."

Jewish Home officials said
that the request was a “social initiative” that would benefit Sabbath-observant
families, who would have a day off to do non-Shabbat activities together like
traveling or visiting museums. Moreover, “such an initiative may also lead to a
longer school day during the week, and thus help women return to the
workplace.”

The source further said
that "the initiative is likely to lead to an extended school day during
the rest of the week, in a desire to facilities women integration into the
workforce; as well as foster religious publics' integration into Israeli
leisure cultural and activities," which had been unavailable to those who
observe Shabbat."

The number of unwed Israeli
couples living together is growing, according to a Central Bureau of Statistics
report released yesterday, although they still constitute only 5 percent of all
couples sharing a household.

According to Dyonna
Ginsburg, the Jewish Agency’s director of Jewish service learning, “there’s no
need for program providers and funders to present a rose-colored version of
Israel to our young people.

“Quite the contrary, we
should be looking for additional ways to present Israel as it really is.
Immersive Jewish Service-learning (IJSL) participants have not been shying away
from Israel based on their time there. They are clearly strengthening their
connections to [the country], their heritage and the Jewish people,” she said.

The Haredim see the
uninterrupted continuation of Torah study and draft exemption as an existential
issue. There is only black and white here, not 50 shades of grey, not even 2
shades of gray.

The entire power structure
of the haredi political system is based on the complete control that the rabbis
have over their flock. Once young men start serving in the army, national
service, or, God forbid, work for a living – they may start getting their own
ideas.

It doesn't matter that both Bennett and Lapid were proposing gradual,
moderated and meaningful plans to equalise the national burden. There is no
real compromise that the haredim can agree to. For the haredi rabbis [not
necessarily their flock] the prospect of change itself is the end of the world.

Their entire system, all of
their energies, are focused on keeping things as they were in the ghettos of
eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bennett’s party, which includes
a slew of religious Zionist rabbis, was threatening to upend the order of the
world, no less.

Some leaders in the
religious Zionist community are unhappy over Habayit Hayehudi chief Naftali
Bennett's apparent embrace of Yair Lapid, the head of Yesh Atid, ahead of
coalition negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rabbi Tzefania Drori, the
municipal rabbi of Kiryat Shmona and a leading religious Zionist figure, issued
a warning to Bennett on Monday over the issue of drafting haredim into the
military.

The haredi draft issue is
proving to be the sticking point in the current coalition negotiations.
Rightfully so, because focusing on this matter is the key to ending the
chokehold that ultra-Orthodox parties have had on Israeli politics and matters
of religion and state for the past 20 years.

…The insufferable overflow
of self-righteousness, and the hostility toward broader Israeli society,
evident in haredi political behavior needs to be curbed. The haredi political
juggernaut needs to be rolled back. Instead, it is time for moderate religious
Zionism to reassert its place in matters of religion and state and public
policy.

[T]here is no practical
justification for a head-on collision with the Haredim in 2013. On the
contrary: We must strengthen the positive process of change they are
undergoing. We must exploit their relative political weakness to reach
unprecedented understandings with them. Instead of excluding Shas, we must
embrace it and offer it a new covenant, one that will advance the Haredi
revolution rather than turning it into a counterrevolution.

Will Shas take the lead on
this issue, or will it be dragged behind the stricter Ashkenazi line on yeshiva
study? Will it be able to deconstruct the Rabbi Yosef sent to President Shimon
Peres last Thursday, according to which “it is necessary to conduct negotiations
with utmost seriousness and find suitable solutions for full-time Torah
scholars”? Shas is signaling that it is willing to talk and resolve the issue,
but it’s only the start.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid
and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett are coordinating their positions
with the aim of advancing legislation that will equalize the military service
burden.

Also, Yesh Atid is
demanding the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee. The Finance
Committee’s current chief is MK Moshe Gafni from United Torah Judaism. His
predecessor was Yaakov Litzman, also from UTJ.

Eighty percent of the
Jewish public said that they were in favor of creating a government that would
promote an agenda based on civil issues, specifically freedom of religion and
equality in shouldering the civic burden. Amongst Likud Beiteinu voters, 87%
support a civil government and only 13% are against it. Amongst Yesh Atid
voters, 99% are in support; The Tzipi Livni Party, Meretz and Labor- 100%,, and
among ‘Jewish Home’, 68%. Only 38% of Shas voters support the establishment of
a civil government has 39%.

The survey further asked if
the public thinks that Yair Lapid should insist on a government coalition
without Shas and UTJ. A majority of 54% of the Jewish public believes that
Lapid should indeed work to create a government without the two Ultra-Orthodox
parties, while 46% are against it. Amongst secular voters, 70% support a
government without the ultra-Orthodox parties while 93% of ultra-Orthodox
voters are against it.

Exactly one year ago over
one hundred Orthodox male rabbis and female Torah scholars gathered to build
upon their frustration over the advancement of the ultra-Orthodox stance as the
seeming representation of Orthodox Judaism in Israel.

The group, en masse,
opposes the approach of the Nationalist Haredi stream (Hardal) which has taken
on many of the patterns of thought that were once considered to be the sole
domain of the Haredi world.

But here is the great
mystery: The semi-egalitarian synagogues, the Orthodox trend that began in the
Jerusalem congregation Shira Hadasha in 2001 and in recent years has caught on
in dozens of other places in Israel, from Be’er Sheva to Modi’in and Mazkeret
Batya, has been unable to breach the wall of establishment Modern Orthodoxy in
the United States.

What has the supposedly
rightist government of Netanyahu, about to be re-created, actually done? They
have increased spending on anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodox education while
virtually liquidating all supervision of these schools.

Under the Nahari Laws,
Ultra-Orthodox schools were given permission to receive funding on an equal
basis to schools following the standard state curriculum; today in such
Ultra-Orthodox centers as Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox schools entirely exempted
from Education Ministry supervision were even renovated with public funding.

In 2010, 1.05 billion
shekels (NIS) worth of allocations were added onto the budget, specifically for
religious purposes, which is almost four times more than the budget of the
Ministry of Religious Services in that same year.

In 2011, the amount came
close to NIS 850 million, of which NIS 140 million were categorized by the
committee as "For Gafni Coalition Use," referring to the ultra-Orthodox
United Torah Judaism member and Chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, Moshe
Gafni.

Willing to work and no
longer ready to accept a life of poverty, young Haredim are gradually warming
up to the modern Orthodox and even secular segments of society - but carefully
and on their own terms.

But most of those seeking a
profession that provides a good living are turning to general studies like law
or business administration rather than technology. General study programs are
more accessible, popular and adapted for people working their way through
school or attending yeshiva.

Once it was politically
correct to disparage the Sephardics and discriminate against them under various
pretexts, when the real reason of course was racism and hatred of the other's
culture. Today this is no longer popular, but it is still okay to vilify
haredim and discriminate against them.

I contend that over the 2
millenium, Judaism has been hijacked and distorted into something that even
Moshe Rabeinu wouldn’t recognize had he popped in for a visit today. And at the
risk of being accused as arrogant by those more knowledgeable than I, I further
contend that the interpretations that view women as men’s property through
various practices camouflaged as halachot must go.

Tnuva Food Industries, the
No. 2 advertiser to the Haredi sector, increased its ad budget by about 20% to
about NIS 3.8 million in 2012, while cutting back overall ad spending by about
20% as well.

The Super-Sol supermarket
chain reduced its overall ad spending by about 50% over the past two years but
increased its advertising budget for the religious and Haredi communities to
NIS 3.23 million, putting it in fourth place.

The "IDF Jewish
Power" (Otzma Yehudit Letzahal) app enables soldiers to be up to date about
Jewish matters 24 hours a day, to listen to words of Torah, and to receive IDF
Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz's weekly message on the Torah portion, information on
Jewish military law, prayer, and access to the rabbinate's Website and Rabbi
Peretz's Youtube postings, among other things.

At the very least, these
women are owed the respect of an apology; at most, compensation for their pain
suffering if they received Depo-Provera for years and truly didn’t understand
they had a choice about it.

But sadly, I fear that the frontal assault and demonization of the agencies who
worked tirelessly to bring Ethiopian Jewry to Israel will lead to even stronger
denials and defensiveness, which will only bolster the paranoid and hate-fueled
conspiracy theories.

The victim in all this will
be the truth - and once again, the Ethiopian women themselves.

There should be an apology
by no less than the Prime Minister, not only to Ethiopian Jews but to all Jews
worldwide, that their leaders are sorry for participating in such a deplorable
and inhumane act.

...Israel must act
decisively to right this wrong. It must alert all women that were unknowing
recipients of the drug, and provide mental and physical health support to these
women and their families. It must write new laws to ensure this does not happen
again — to Ethiopian Jews or any other minority group. And it should begin a
state-wide campaign of education on the strengths and benefits that Ethiopian
Jews contribute to Israeli society.

Orthodox Rabbi Seth Mandel
returned from Uganda on Wednesday, where he helped the Putti villagers build
their first eruv. He said that while they are not Jewish and do not require
one, they were happy to get it and are actively interested in an Orthodox
conversion.

“They don’t believe that
they are a part of the Ten Tribes and they aren’t interested in moving to
Israel,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

But it has not been a pitch-perfect
journey for the 17-year-old, who is the latest musical phenomenon to emerge
from the African Hebrew Israelite community, also known as the Black Hebrews.

Like Ophir Ben-Shetreet, a fellow contestant who was recently suspended from
her religious high school in Ashdod for singing in public, Pierce has
discovered how difficult it is to achieve superstardom while trying to uphold
her community's values of modesty and discretion.

A meeting Tuesday between
representatives of the Vatican and Israel has brought them closer to ratifying
the Fundamental Agreement governing diplomatic relations between the two
states, which will establish the rights of the Catholic Church in Israel as
well as regulate property and taxation issues.